A DREAM THAT BELONGS TO NO ONE (2022-)
A 3 hour 11 minute choreography for five dancer/performers & a musician. Accompanied by a hand-illustrated booklet of stories and lyrics. THE SAVED NIGHT PART I.
“Sit up, see a similar movement as before but from another angle, hear again the sound of a string being stroked. Where does it come from? Orange light from the setting sun hitting the wall. Suddenly feeling deeply moved. How much time has passed?
[A DREAM THAT BELONGS TO NO ONE] makes the expectation, perhaps even the necessity, of a centre vanish, evoking a sense of disorientation… a strong sense of instability and groundlessness, akin to the experience of falling... A pause to be with ourselves and our senses in a space that doesn’t expect but just is... In that state, there is very little to hold on to, and an infinity of unstable images and sensations to open up to.
As the performance ends… we sit there for a bit longer, affected by the intensity of their presence. It is not clear whether or what “new directions” we have been offered, but we have been offered a space to pause and fall into an openness and curiosity of what these re-orientations might be for each of us, and for all of us collectively… I think, what is rehearsed here – as a form without centrality – is all about getting closer to a sense of self that is based in interdependent connection.”
– Konstantina Georgelou & Nienke Scholts, MASKA
Sometimes a dream gets all over my body and won't leave me alone. It's sticky or rough or just a constant pressure on my chest, stomach, groin. The image and feeling linger for days and something, slowly, almost imperceptibly, changes in me. Then I think of Ibn’Arabi, who wrote of the Alam-al-Mithal, a layer of reality in which images and the presences in dreams exist without us. The presences in the Alam-al-Mithal are not made up, but have their own desires and needs. (There's a similar idea in some forms of contemporary psychoanalysis, in Neoplatonism, or in Chiara Bottici).
It’s interesting that a dream is always whatever image. It's specific, absolutely exact in its details, but it doesn't matter what it is. What matters is that it arrived, it grabbed me, it came from somewhere, I can't say where, but I can feel that it needs attention.
In an empty building at the hour of sunset, performers bow long wires tuned to the resonant frequencies of the space, creating a sonic landscape in which the audience is invited to sink into and let the hours pass. The light fades to dark. Through a score in which songs, gestures, and dances are loosely re-arranged and looped, spectators melt into darkness and being together with strangers. Whatever images arrive, can be felt into, listened to, argued with…
– Asa Horvitz
Presentations:
Broedplaats Bogota, Halfweg, June 2-5, 2021 (DAS Theatre MA)
Frascati, Amsterdam, October 28-30, 2021 (excerpt)
SIN Arts, Budapest, May 3 2022 (pre-premiere)
Het HEM, Amsterdam, June 24 2022 (premiere)
SPRING Performing Arts Festival, Utrecht, October 28 & 29 2022
Print booklet now available in Het HEM bookstore. (Download PDF here).
With and by:
Szymon Adamczak, Rosemarie Allaert, Nahuel Cano, Asa Horvitz, Maria Mavridou, Keyna Nara, Venuri Perera, Oneka von Schrader, and Camille Verhaak
Custom shirts by Le&Zei
Nails by Le Van Hung
Advice: Joachim Robbrecht, Anne Breure
Bibliography:
Attending Sideways, Disoriented, In The Dark: A Dream That Belongs To No One by Konstantina Georgelou and Nienke Scholts, MASKA, Winter 2023
“An Experience That Belongs To Nobody”, keynote lecture, Wiener Festwochen, Silvia Bottiroli, June 2021
Production:
Produced by Golden Trout Wilderness. Co-production/Residency support: SPRING Festival Utrecht, SIN Budapest, Crushing Borders Network, Het Huis Utrecht, Het Makersfonds, Province of Utrecht, Frascati Producties, DAS Arts / DAS Theatre, The Camargo Foundation, MacDowell.
Thanks to/impossible without: Szymon Adamczak, Nahuel Cano, Maria Mavridou, Keyna Nara, Venuri Perera, Oneka von Schrader, Camille Verhaak, Esy Casey, Silvia Bottiroli, Andrea Bozic, Anne Breure, Cara Hoffman, Konstantina Georgelou, Joachim Robbrecht, Orpheu de Jong, Mark Timmer, Marta Keil and Grzegorz Reske.